In the same league
by VANEISA BAKSHThe West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) now has to take a position on the Indian Cricket League (ICL), which has been steadily recruiting players for its 20/20 championships. A local report claimed that five West Indian cricketers had been approached with offers up to US$550,000.
The ICL, a privately run league, has been excoriated by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), and players, past and present, have been banned from participating in the ICL’s tournament.
The BCCI’s power is so extensive that the courts had to intervene to stop public sector companies in India from dismissing employees who were associating themselves with the ICL.
Cricket’s overlord, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has toed the BCCI line by refusing to recognise the ICL and thus not sanctioning its tournament. New Zealand and Pakistan have banned their players, and although Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors has supported it, players were already threatened with bans.
Headed by former Indian captain Kapil Dev (who has since been sacked as director of the National Cricket Academy), the ICL has persisted. Brian Lara and Mohammed Yousuf have signed on. Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming, Shane Bond, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Damien Martyn are interested. Several cricketers are said to have chosen to end their national careers, especially when they were not picked for the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa to take part.
The BCCI’s objections to the ICL tournament appear to be mainly fuelled by financial considerations; one regarding television earnings, and another relating to its plan to form a two-tier cricket league involving domestic leagues in four countries and an international league. A Cricinfo report said the plan is being put together by event managers, International Management Group (IMG), who will shortly meet in Singapore with officials from the cricket boards of India, Australia, South Africa and England to finalise the details. Set up along the lines of professional football, it proposes to have clubs hire players from anywhere to play in the twenty20 format.
Commentators in India have quarrelled that the BCCI’s greed is preventing it from grabbing an opportunity to develop this fledgling format in the country by technically “outsourcing” its growth. But the BCCI plans for its own league explain its hostility and inflexibility.
A couple years ago when Allen Stanford revealed plans for his 20/20 tournament, there was a large measure of opposition to it. Stanford had the resources to fund it well and was able to eventually get WICB and ICC sanction for the matches, though the super final was cancelled. It helped that he had his own ground in Antigua (which the ICL does not have). Plans for the next tournament are underway with South Africa and Australia involved, but it hasn’t made the ICC any more comfortable, it seems.
The tournament’s success was a bitter contrast to the Cricket World Cup earlier this year, and while official concerns are over the “best interests of the game,” these are manifestly related to money – for officials, not players (who stand to benefit handsomely from their participation in these tournaments).
New Zealand Cricket chief executive, Justin Vaughan said these tournaments erode the value of the official versions, even citing concerns about Stanford’s tournament.
“We depend upon the value of the media rights associated with official international events to provide a majority of our income,” Vaughan said. “It is therefore in the best interests of New Zealand Cricket not to support unofficial events such as the ICL.”
Objections seem directly linked to financial gain. The lengths to which boards will go to prevent players from participating reveal how deeply they control cricketers’ careers and income-earning capacities.
When the WICB discusses its own position on the ICL, they should be mindful of their existing relationship with Allen Stanford and the implications for that tournament, and they should reflect on the consequences of bans based on the Kerry Packer experience.